Upstairs Downstairs
by Droplet
Summary: When a couple move into their new flat, they don't realise they're walking into danger. Who is their mysterious neighbour, John Smith? And what secrets does their new home hold?
1. Prelude

Hello, this is my first fanfic and I hope you enjoy it! I've sort of got this one planned out, and please don't be put off by the lack of The Doctor in this prelude, he is coming in Chapter 1! I've given it a T rating because, this being a Doctor Who story, there are quite a few deaths before the end. And before I forget….

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or anything in it.

Prelude

It was, they both decided, quite a nice flat, in the scheme of things. She had liked the kitchen area, filled with shiny appliances and polished wooden drawers. It would be nice to finally cook with appliances that worked! He had quite liked the balcony overlooking the park. How nice, he thought, it would be to share quiet evenings outside with a glass of wine. She had laughed at that, calling him a hopeless romantic, but secretly she admired the idea as well. The only thing that had worried both of them was the cost. Surely it would be far out of their price range?

But no, not even that was an issue, the place was surprisingly cheap. Suspiciously cheap, she had thought, though maybe she was merely being paranoid. During their second viewing they had inspected every single piece of furniture, checked the wiring, and talked to all the current residents, just to ensure nothing was wrong with the place. All the residents had been surprised by the low prices, but none of them had anything negative to report. By this point, he had been convinced there was little point looking at anywhere else. The flat was perfect. Perfect. And she couldn't really argue with him. It was everything they wanted.

Except that, though they would never admit it, they both felt slightly uneasy inside what was soon to be their new home. There was no real reason for them to feel this way; regardless, it was difficult to ignore. The walls were too white, the corridors were too clean and even the air vents were in pristine condition. Everything felt too clinical, too sterile.

The flat, however, was the least of their worries. They had decided to start living together, having been together for a couple of years, but neither of their flats had been large enough for two people to live comfortably. Hence the property hunt. And at this delicate point in their relationship, neither wanted to upset the other. After all, moving in together was a big commitment. He was rather looking forward to it, though she was rather more apprehensive about sharing space with someone else. This had been just her third serious relationship, and things seemed to be moving very quickly, although that wasn't a bad thing. He loved her, she was sure of that, and that was all that really mattered.

Making a fuss was neither of the pair's priorities, so they ignored the strange warning signals the flat was giving them. What would the other think? "Maybe you're not ready for this kind of commitment…" etc. Whatever happened, that kind of conversation could not end well. So they both kept quiet, as they went to both their apartments in turn, and packed their belongings into boxes. Lots of boxes.

"Everything will be fine," she said as they crammed into her Vauxhall. She really believed that once they'd settled down, she would feel perfectly comfortable in the flat. It would be their home. He tried to feel the same way, but he felt this indescribable…dread. Yes, that was the word. He was looking forward to moving in with her, but he was not looking forward to that flat. He dreaded it. It was all very silly, he thought. It was him who had said the flat was perfect! It was just nerves, that was it, he was nervous. Who wouldn't be, making such a commitment? Smiling, he sat back in his seat. Like she said, everything was going to be fine. Perfectly fine.

And so, Hannah Stokes and Steve Taylor drove into the centre of Bristol towards the Eternity Wharf apartment complex. Although neither of them knew what would await them there, they were right about one thing. The place was too perfect.


	2. The Man from Next Door

**Here we go, the first proper chapter! Thanks for the reviews! I find them really helpful to motivate me and get me writing. And things are about to get interesting…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or anything in it.**

The Man from Next Door

Steve looked around and admired his handiwork. The flat looked far more homely and comfortable now they had unpacked all that stuff. The red leather sofa was now adorned with colourful cushions, knitted by Hannah's aunt, and on top of the television sat a little Beanie Baby. It amazed him how much little touches like this could really bring a room to life. Especially this room, which had felt like a morgue beforehand. Sssh, positive thoughts, he told himself. This was his new home; he'd have to get used to it. He forced a smile onto his face, and decided to help Hannah hang up the pictures.

Hannah was becoming very frustrated. The "easy-apply" adhesive strips that she had bought were not easy to apply, and weren't particularly adhesive. The bedroom wall was still completely bare. That, and the fact that she had nine different picture frames to hang up in total, were making this day much harder than it needed to be. She partly blamed her artist friend, Sarah. If she hadn't painted all those pictures, Hannah wouldn't have to put them all on the wall. But of course her friend needed humouring, and Hannah did want to be supportive, really.

Her mood lifted slightly when Steve entered the room, though maybe that was just because he was finally going to help her, after a morning of subtle hints. He had brought some coffee for them both, and placed the tray on the bedside table.

"You need some help there?"

Ugh, Hannah wished he hadn't said that quite so condescendingly. She quickly decided she was NOT going to ask him for help, no matter how much she wanted it.

"Oh God, sorry, that sounded really patronising, didn't it?" Hannah turned and looked at him. She smiled. He could be a bit of a twit sometimes, but he always apologised. That was one of the things she liked about him; he was humble, which was more than most of the guys out there.

"Don't worry about it. And yes, I need help before I chuck these out the window!"

He kneeled down and picked up the "easy-apply" strip. It was odd, he thought, that they weren't allowed to put nails in the walls and put the pictures up that way. But that was one of the few rules the apartment complex had. Holes in the wall are unacceptable, that was what the rather formal letter had said. Odd. He inspected the strip, and turned it over, but he couldn't for the life of him see how it was supposed to stick. It was completely dry. Why on earth had she bought something so complicated?

"Where did you get these things, anyway?"

"Oh, they were cheap down at Tesco. Buy one pack, fifty percent off the second."

"….Do you have any idea what I should be doing?"

"Nope. But since you've been so kind as to help…"

Hannah climbed onto the bed and lay there, satisfied, grasping her cup of coffee and holding it up to her face.

"….I can finally relax."

As soon as Hannah had made herself comfortable, the doorbell buzzed. She huffed to herself as she put down the coffee, and slowly rose. Steve smiled smugly as she strode towards the front door, but she didn't notice. Calmly she put her eye to the peephole.

Outside was a strange, thin-looking man, dressed in a slightly worn brown pinstripe suit. He was standing right next to the door, and grinned manically as soon as she started looking. This unsettled her slightly, (after all, how could he tell when she was watching?) but he was probably just a salesman so she mentally prepared the usual putdown. Bracing herself for the pointless stream of PR nonsense that was likely to dribble from his mouth, Hannah opened the door.

Immediately the odd man put his hand forward, and politely Hannah gave it a hard shake. Then he smiled at her for a few seconds before he remembered that the conversation had yet to begin.

"Oh, sorry, hello there! It's nice to meet you, I'm your new neighbour. Well, technically you're my new neighbours coz I was here before you, but you get the idea."

"……..."

"I just thought I'd pop round to welcome you here! The name's John Smith, a bit boring I know but I can't say it's ever done me any harm. I'm next to you on the left, in no. 316. Wondered if we might have a little chat, get to know each other?"

"Um, okay then. Yeah, I'm sure that's fine."

"Super. May I come in?"

Hannah had been bowled away by the speed of his babbling, but he wasn't a salesman and he seemed harmless enough.

"Sure, make yourself at home."

Hannah stepped back from the door, and Mr Smith briskly walked in, looking around, and then sat down on the sofa with a thick thump. He put his feet on the coffee table in front of him, before realising and pulling them down again. He spied Steve through the bedroom door and spoke loudly as Hannah strode towards the kitchen area, and began opening drawers.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything?"

"Oh no, we're just finishing our unpacking. Would you like some coffee or tea?"

"Ooh, yeah. I could murder a cuppa."

"Steve, come in here, we've got a visitor!"

Steve put down the picture he was holding with a flash, and strode into the main room. Anything to get away from those damn adhesive strips. He looked bemused at the complete stranger sitting on the sofa. Who the hell was this? One of Hannah's friends? The odd man gave him a little wave, before rising from his seat and stretching out his hand. The man seemed polite enough, so Steve took his hand and gave whoever-the-hell-he-was a good, firm shake.

"Very nice to meet you, my name's John Smith."

"He's our new neighbour," Hannah called over from the kitchen. Mr Smith sat back down, and Steve joined him. He felt slightly uncomfortable; he had never really spoken to most of his previous neighbours. They were just sort of, there. And this guy looked like an eccentric. Why was he dressed in a suit just to pop next door? Alarm bells were definitely ringing.

Hannah came over with Mr Smith's tea, and placed the tray carefully on the coffee table, before joining them also on the sofa. Mr Smith was now sandwiched between the couple, and as Hannah began to speak, Steve realised he would really rather be next to her. Instead, as the stranger began to speak, Steve felt he was being sidelined.

"Well, thank you for the tea. As I was saying, I just wanted to say hello, see what you thought about the place. Neighboury things like that. Are you two...married?"

Hannah bolted in like a shot, though clearly embarrassed. "No, we're not. No, I think it's a bit soon for that, really. We've only been together a couple of years. This is our first try at living together." Steve wanted to add something to that, but their new neighbour was too swift and cut him off.

"Oh, well I wish you the best of luck!" His voice then suddenly hushed. Steve and Hannah felt themselves almost compelled to lean it a bit closer towards him. "So, then…what do you think of this place? What do you think about Eternity Wharf?" Hannah and Steve looked at each other before answering. What was the right thing to say?

"Oh, well -"

"We love it." Hannah had quickly cut in, intercepting Steve's mumbling. He sighed, and wondered if he'd get a chance to speak in this conversation.

"Really?" Mr Smith seemed surprised by their response.

"Oh yes," Hannah continued, "It's everything we could have asked for. The size, the location, the cost. It's perfect. Exactly what we wanted."

Mr Smith paused to consider this for a moment, before taking a sip of his tea. He put it down slowly, and the couple found themselves unconsciously tense. They didn't quite know how, but both of them were utterly bewitched by this slow, gentle pause.

And then he spoke. "That's a bit odd." He took yet another sip of his tea. "Coz, you see, I don't know about you…" As he put his tea down again, he looked around the room, as if afraid something was listening. And there was genuine, unhidden concern in his voice as he continued.

"I don't know about you, but I find this whole place unimaginably creepy."

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**Just a couple of things I wanted to ask to anyone who's reading.**

**1) Are Hannah and Steve too generic? I've tried to give them personalities, but I worry they're just a bit too plain. Thoughts?**

**2) Is this chapter sexist? I mean, I have Hannah having to ask Steve for help, and then she goes off and makes the tea! I worry about this kind of thing, because I don't like to write clichés.**

**Thanks for your thoughts!**


	3. An Unexpected Vacancy

**Right, here's the next chapter! Things are about to heat up at Eternity Wharf…**

An Unexpected Vacancy

"I don't know about you, but I find this whole place unimaginably creepy."

Mr Smith waited for a few moments as his words sunk into the couple. He could tell from the concerned look on Steve's face that the man agreed with him, but Hannah was harder to read, more guarded. Neither of them were smiling anymore.

"Well, it's been nice to meet both of you. I'll be next door if you need me."

Steve began to panic as the mysterious man began to rise. He was leaving just as quickly as he had arrived; he hadn't even finished his tea. But Steve felt the same way as he did about the apartment complex. It was creepy and perfect and clean, and he was not about to let the first person who agreed with him walk out the door. Well, not just yet anyway.

Hannah, on the other hand, wanted to get rid of this Smith person as quickly as she could. It frightened her, the way he just waltzed in and in one sentence cemented her fears. This place was creepy, but she didn't need some stranger telling her so. An irrational fear is one thing, but if someone else agrees, just how irrational is it? Mr Smith would just feed her fear and have her screaming at shadows. And she was not that kind of woman.

Hannah was just about to see Mr Smith out the door, but Steve finally managed to get his words in first.

"

"Do you have to go so soon? You haven't even finished your cup of tea!" Hannah shot Steve a furious glance, but he didn't notice. She just didn't understand. Why was he keeping this freak in their home? But, thankfully, he seemed to be failing, as Mr Smith continued walking into the corridor.

"Na, I wouldn't want to intrude. Well, it's been very nice to meet – "

But that sentence was never finished, because at that moment, a piercing scream echoed around the building. The harsh, shrill sound was definitely female in origin, and seemed to originate below them, but it was impossible to tell exactly where it had come from. Steve and Hannah froze immediately as the sound began, but almost instantaneously Mr Smith had sprinted away down the corridor.

As the couple regained their senses, Steve was the first to react, though not exactly in a constructive way.

"What was that?"

"It was a scream, Steve, it was a scream." Hannah sighed. She knew that their conversation with Mr Smith had had a strange effect on Steve, but this situation called for practicality.

"Right," she started, "I'm going to see if anyone downstairs needs help. You get ready to call the police but don't until I know what's going on." And without giving Steve any time to question her orders, she ran off into the corridor. She thought she had seen Mr Smith go down this way, and hopefully he would be dealing with the situation already.

Numerous other people were hanging around in the corridor, clearly having heard the scream but failing to do anything about it. People like that disappointed Hannah. If you really care, why don't you do something instead of standing around and gossiping? She heard numerous snatches of conversation as she sprinted through the passages.

"Ooh dear, I wonder what's –"

"I hope nothing serious has –"

"-probably just seen their bill!"

"Should someone call the –"

"-woke up my little Tommy."

Hannah finally reached the stairwell and stormed through the double doors, her feet lightly touching each step as she flew downwards. But as she reached the next floor down, she released she had no idea which level she was heading for. Following her instincts, she decided to go down one more storey, and when she got to the door she heard a strange electronic humming. It hurt her ears, and only deepened her confusion. What was going on?

Breathing deeply in, she opened the stairwell door onto the third floor. Immediately she noticed an elderly woman lying prone on the floor, and she rushed over to help. It was only then that she spotted Mr Smith standing in the shadows, putting a strange little machine into his pocket. He walked over, a lot less energetic than earlier, and stared intently at the old woman.

He spoke quietly, slowly, but Hannah wasn't in the mood to be patronised.

"She's dead."

Hannah felt for the old lady's pulse, but she couldn't find it, and she placed her hand next to the mouth, but no air was coming out.

"Help me! We've got to get her breathing."

"I said, she's dead."

"Well, maybe if you put some effort in, we could get her to breathe!"

"She stopped breathing before I got here, and her heart has stopped. There's nothing we can do, and I'm sorry, but that woman is dead."

"Just let me TRY!" Hannah screamed. She had had enough of this man for one day. He wasn't even trying to save her, just accepting that the poor lady was dead. Which, Hannah pondered, she probably was. But where was the harm in trying? In trying to save someone's life?

Mr Smith backed away and the next five minutes passed almost silently as Hannah pumped the lady's chest and tried desperately to get her breathing. She failed. Stepping away from the body (corpse?) she pulled her phone out and sent Steve a short text to call an ambulance. After that, she turned on Mr Smith, wiping some moisture away from her eye. She still had some questions for him.

"Was it a heart attack or something, do you think?"

"That's what I guessed. But…"

He flipped the old woman's body over, and crouched down to look at the neck area. There was an odd red mark around the back, beneath her hairline. Hannah wasn't going to overlook the obvious just to console herself; the mark seemed to be a bite. Which meant that some dangerous snake or reptile or something was probably loose in the building. Lovely.

"….that, to me, looks like a bite."

"Unfortunately, Mr Smith, I'm gonna have to agree with you."

"…Really? You're not going to come up with another, harmless theory?"

"What's the point? People don't usually scream because they're having a heart attack. They're usually too busy collapsing or in pain. So I think, and I think you think, that she was killed by a poisonous bite."

"But," Hannah continued, "there's nothing more I can do about it, so if you don't mind I'm going back to my apartment. An ambulance should arrive soon, and perhaps you should consider contacting animal control.

"Ah, but there's one more thing, Miss…?"

"Stokes, Hannah Stokes."

"Well, Miss Stokes, there's one thing here that still doesn't make sense."

"What?"

"We heard her scream…and I got here five minutes later."

"So?"

"…I don't know of any animal bite on Earth that can kill someone in five minutes flat."

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**So, there we go. Did you like it? Did you hate it? Then SPEAK your mind in the form of a review!!**

**Right, my blatant plug for reviews is now over. And I promise that the next cliff-hanger will be something different then just The Doctor saying something creepy. Which I've now done twice in a row. Oops.**


	4. House Arrest

**Sorry for the long wait for this chapter. There are numerous reasons for the delay that are too boring and pointless to mention. So let's just get on with the story!**

House Arrest

It had taken a long time, but somehow Hannah had gone to sleep.

She had told Steve pretty much everything that had happened, although she did embellish it a little. It was a poisonous snake, she said, that killed the woman, and it had been found and taken away. No need to worry him. But she knew that it wasn't as simple as that. She had no idea what had bitten the old dear, and she knew for a fact that it hadn't been caught.

And those facts had made it very difficult indeed for her to close her eyes and drift away. She gazed around at every little rustling noise she heard, instinctively worried. Which was ridiculous, of course. The old lady had been killed two floors below, and it was highly unlikely that any animal would crawl or slither up two flights of stairs, and find the exact room that she was in.

More often than not, the rustling was just Steve pulling on the sheets in his sleep. She gazed at him for a while, the lovable lump. After she told about the dead woman, he had immediately cancelled all plans for doing up the apartment and had instead waited on her for the rest of the day, which was nice though vaguely patronising. After all, she hadn't returned sobbing into a tissue.

Eventually though, Hannah managed to drift off, and the room was completely still and silent.

Until, about half an hour later, when an incredibly loud and piercing siren had gone off throughout the entire building. At precisely midnight.

Both Hannah and Steve woke almost immediately after the ungodly noise began, neither being particularly deep sleepers. Hannah swore a couple of times at this unexpected awakening, but Steve staggered to his feet and turned the light on. Hannah swore again at the bright light, but also rose to her feet.

"Must….must be the fire alarm…or something," Steve mumbled, as they both opened the wardrobe and began to put their dressing gowns on. Yes, the fire alarm does mean you should leave as soon as possible, but he wasn't going out in just his shirt and boxers, and she didn't want to be seen in just her nighty. Especially by that strange Mr Smith.

They were heading for the door, Hannah fumbling for the keys, when a scraping, mechanical sound began. It was coming from behind them, and as it increased in intensity, they saw a thick metal shutter begin to descend over one of the windows. As the grinding sound continued to grow in intensity, more shutters began to creep downwards, every window slowly being covered with a sheet of metal. The couple stared aghast as slowly but surely all visible signs of the outside world were blotted out. Finally, the shutters locked into place and the mechanism stopped. The room seemed much darker now, though the light was still on, but it definitely felt smaller. Much smaller.

The two of them just stared at the windows (or what were once the windows) for a time, before a knock on the door brought them back to the matter at hand. Grabbing the keys off the coffee table, Steve opened the door. It was Mr Smith, wearing striped pyjamas.

Seeing them there, he held the door open to allow Hannah and Steve out. They raced past him and into the corridor, but Steve gave a little nod in reply.

Across the whole building people began to leave their flats and slowly formed a mass as they all moved towards the steps. Steve and Hannah managed to flow into the crowd as it navigated the corridors, and soon heard a cacophony of voices as everyone discussed the events with those next to them.

"-some kind of fire drill?"

"Did they seal off your windows as well?"

"It's like the films, you know biological hazard, seal the blast doors!"

"Oh, don't be stupid darling."

"-just get out and get it over with."

It took them about fifteen minutes to get to the ground floor, as the crowds converged in the stairwells and gummed up the flow. It's quite tricky getting down eight flights of stairs when there's someone in front, below and either side of you, and both of them very nearly tripped at least twice.

By the time they got to the bottom, the crowds were so large that neither of them could actually see the doors, and the slow movement had now come to a halt.

"Hannah, shouldn't the crowd be getting smaller? I mean, if people are leaving…"

A murmur quickly began to spread through the masses, as people began to shout and some seemed to be sobbing. Hannah grabbed a wiry-looking young man who was shouting out at the crowd. She spun him round and had to shout to be heard.

"What's everybody saying, what's happened?!"

"It's the doors. They're shut, sealed like the windows. There's no way out, don't you get it? We're all sealed in, we can't get out!"

As the crowd began to panic in the foyer, Steve noticed a light humming noise, followed by three short, muffled taps. A loud, throaty voice than coughed, and Steve looked around for the source of the noise. He couldn't find it. He could hear the inhalation as the speaker prepared to begin.

"TESTING….TESTING, ONE, TWO, THREE."

Everyone in the crowd stopped as this massive voice resonated around the whole room. Maybe it was the police, or the fire service, or the supervisors, or -

"RESIDENTS, RESIDENTS, PLEASE DO NOT PANIC. PANICKING IS UNNECESSARY, YOU ARE IN NO DANGER."

"WELL, NOT YET, ANYWAY."


	5. March of the Dead

**Here's the next part of the story, but I'd just like to thank those who've posted reviews.**

**Naomitrekkie****, I love reading where you think the story's going. You're completely wrong, I'm afraid, but your ideas are probably better than the actual story! I was really tempted just to throw away my plot and go with the one's you've suggested!**

**Thanks also to ****ShakNali****, ****ladybug48****, ****MingIsRandom****, ****Seileach****, and ****heartsDOCTOR****!**

**Now, this part of the story is why I gave it a T rating, just in case…**

March of the Dead

"I REPEAT, THERE IS NO IMMEDIATE DANGER."

At that, most of the crowd settled down, but a few noticed the worrying vocabulary that the voice used and all began shouting at once.

"What do you mean, no "immediate" danger?!" "Why have you sealed us in?!" "Let us out!" "Why would there be danger?!" "Who is this?!" "What the hell's going on?!"

"AHEM. IF YOU REMAIN SILENT, I SHALL CLEARLY EXPLAIN THE SITUATION TO YOU, IN GREAT DETAIL.

The whole room became deadly silent.

"YOU HAVE ALL BEEN SELECTED…FOR A…TEST. YES, A TEST."

The room erupted into noise again. "What kind of a test?!" "I didn't volunteer for anything!" "You can't force us!" etc.

"I ASKED FOR SILENCE….. THANK YOU. THIS TEST IS NOT VOLUNTARY, AND THERE IS NO WAY TO LEAVE THE BUILDING. BUT AS A COURTESY, I SHALL INFORM YOU OF THE SUBJECT OF THIS TEST.

"THIS TEST IS TWOFOLD. IT WILL INVESTIGATE BOTH THE SURVIVAL CAPACITY OF THE AVERAGE HUMAN, AND WILL PROVIDE AN ADEQUATE FIELD TEST FOR SOME OF MY…CREATIONS.

"I HAVE ALREADY RELEASED ONE HUNDRED CREATURES INTO THE BUILDINGS AIR VENTS. EVEN NOW THEY WILL HAVE CAUGHT YOUR SCENT AND SHOULD BE HEADING DOWNWARDS. YOU PROBABLY HAVE A COUPLE OF MINUTES UNTIL THEY ARRIVE. NO IMMEDIATE DANGER."

Those on the periphery of the vast crowd began to run to the stairwells to try and pre-emptively escape the danger, but a sudden arc of lightning crackled from the ceiling and struck those trying to flee, again and again until all who tried to evacuate were reduced to ash. The smell of burning, mixed with an acrid industrial odour, wafted back other the gathered mass, providing a stark warning against attempting to leave.

"AH, NOW, WHERE WAS I? PLEASE DON'T ATTEMPT TO LEAVE UNTIL I FINISH. AFTER I CONCLUDE THIS LITTLE SPEECH, I PROMISE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO ROAM THE BUILDING AS YOU WISH.

"MY LITTLE CREATURES ARE ON THEIR WAY, AND YOU MAY LIKE TO KNOW THAT THEY ARE HIGHLY POISONOUS. ONE BITE WOULD BE FATAL, I ASSURE YOU. MANY QUALITY CONTROL TESTS HAVE BEEN CARRIED OUT, THE RESULTS SOME OF YOU MAY HAVE SEEN YESTERDAY."

Hannah froze. Oh God, the old lady.

"BEST OF LUCK TO ALL OF YOU, THOUGH THERE IS A 99.9% CHANCE YOU SHALL ALL DIE BEFORE THE END OF THIS TEST. IT'S NOT PERSONAL, I ASSURE YOU. AH, HERE COMES THE FIRST GROUP…"

The crowd listened intently as the sound of scurrying feet, almost like rats, came from above their heads. Many stood frozen in fear, but the more practical began pushing their way through to the stairs. Hannah yanked Steve's hand, reminding him to focus, as they also began to push themselves through the crowd. A dull thud, followed by screams, came from behind them. They spun round; one of the vents had collapsed and they saw, in a flash, a group of small, silver creatures fall onto the people below.

This signalled the start of a stampede as hundreds of people tried to squeeze their way through the small door to the stairway. Hannah and Steve were some of the first to get out, but a stairwell vent also opened, pouring more of the creatures downwards onto the fleeing masses. They heard more crashes and bumps; probably more creatures being released in the foyer.

As they raced upwards, Steve looked back, getting a better look at the strange creatures. They were silver, shaped almost like slugs, with two small antennae protruding from their…heads? Steve just managed to see one of them leap in the air, impossibly, onto the back of a passing man, before he turned back and continued his hurried ascent.

A couple floors up, he dared another look down, right down the stairwell to the bottom floor. He thought there was a distinct lack of bodies, though of course, that was probably a good thing, wasn't it? He turned and ran back next to Hannah, and breathless, tried to talk to her as they continued upwards.

"Hannah, I…I don't see any dead people. Surely… phew…surely some people must have been…"

He didn't have to finish the sentence, Hannah knew exactly what he meant. The same thought had been bugging her. She thought of the old lady. The poor woman had screamed, and then…

"Steve, Steve, listen. I think, I think some people have been bitten. But what if it doesn't work right away? What if there's a delay?"

"You mean, like, before it enters the bloodstream…"

"Exactly. Oh God, they might not even have realised they were bitten!"

The pair turned around. They didn't know it, but it had been about five minutes since the first creatures had been released. And they watched in horror, as various people began to collapse, almost in unison, followed by others who dropped down almost in sequence like dominoes.

Steve saw a ten year old boy drop down, and then he couldn't bear to look any longer. He turned Hannah away, and pulled her up the stairs, away from the sight. There were tears in his eyes.

"They're all dead. They didn't even know it was gonna…..there were children, I saw the children die, just….just like that… they were dead…."

"No. They were….they were all dead as soon as they were bitten. It's just… it's just they didn't know it yet."

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**Yes, I am very evil to all my non-speaking characters. The idea of the time-delay just came to me and I thought it was brilliant. But what did you think?**


	6. An Inconvenient Truth

**Right, here's the next chapter. We've had the set-up; this is where the action really starts to begin. This is like the beginning of Act Two, if you like that sort of thing.**

An Inconvenient Truth

It was fifteen minutes later. Steve and Hannah had managed to slip into an apartment, and a man came in with his young daughter a few minutes later. They remained completely silent, sitting on the sofa of someone who was probably dead, and Hannah guessed from the man's face and the solemn child that the mother had been killed. The girl was still wearing her Hannah Montana pyjamas.

The occasional scream came in from the corridor, and the group would lower their heads in silent mourning. Hannah just gazed forward dumbly, all spirit crushed by the cold, impersonal massacre they had left behind. Not an act of passion, or rage, but cold and clinical. The man, assuming the voice had belonged to a man, considered their deaths a matter of fact, an unfortunate certainty but nothing more.

She could see, however, that Steve had been much more deeply affected than she had. He began to pace aimlessly around the room, unable to look anyone in the eye. Turning to face her, he gave a weak little smile, before walking to the door, looking through the peep-hole, and walking out into the corridor. Hannah was up like a shot, and quickly followed him outside, before shouting at him as quietly as she could.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?!"

Steve was heading down the passage, so Hannah followed him. Both of them were constantly looking around and scanning the corridor for any signs of danger, crouching low and moving slowly to avoid making excess noise. There were a couple of corpses, but there didn't seem to be any creatures, so Steve replied at a normal volume.

"I'm not staying in there. I'm not just sitting and waiting for the things to come."

"And what makes you think you're safer out here, in plain sight?"

"I never said you had to come with me."

"Well, I wasn't going to let you get yourself killed, was I?"

"You could have done. Some people would."

"It doesn't matter! Please, just listen to what I'm trying to tell you. The corridors aren't safe. You've heard the screams."

"And what makes you think the apartments are any safer? Just shut up for a minute and listen."

Hannah sighed, but obeyed his request. The corridor was mostly silent, but Hannah was transfixed by the occasional scream she could hear from downstairs, or upstairs, or wherever. What did it matter where the screams were coming from? It was just the fact that people were screaming that upset her. But, when Hannah managed to phase the screaming out of the head, she heard something even more terrifying.

What she heard was movement, in the ceiling. Little scraping sounds as the vents strained under unexpected weight. The creatures were above them. The creatures were in the vents.

The pair began to move faster now, unsure if or when the creatures would drop. They passed the corpse of a middle-aged man, or were about too, when a creature suddenly leapt out from behind the body. It landed right in front of them, but Hannah and Steve just raced over it, sprinting now, though unsure of where they were actually running too.

They turned a corner, and rushed down another corridor, past an open door. A crash rang out from inside the room, so as they passed Steve shot a quick glance inside. A man was standing on a table, with four of the creatures surrounding him. Steve did a double-take when he realised who the man was. It was Mr Smith! He grabbed Hannah's shoulder to get her to stop. She too had seen the apartment's occupant, and if it had been anyone else she probably would have continued on. But this was the only other person in the building that they actually knew, that they had actually spoken to. She was practical, but not callous.

They both stopped, hugging the wall beside the door. They certainly didn't want the creatures to go after them instead. Steve, who was closest, leaned over and peaked into the room. One of the creatures had leapt at Mr Smith, but he dodged and the creature instead banged into the wall behind. He was holding a strange little torchy thing up in the air, but otherwise seemed completely defenceless. Steve turned back to Hannah.

"How do we get rid of those things?"

"We need a weapon, something to whack them with…"

Hannah began to look around the corridor, and ran down a short distance to get a better viewpoint. Steve looked at her puzzlingly.

"What are you looking for?"

"I thought there might be one of those axes they have, you know, if there's a fire."

"I don't think so.."

But Hannah had given Steve a different idea, and the equipment necessary was in plain sight.

"Hannah, grab the fire extinguisher!"

"Yeah, I guess we could whack them with that."

She grabbed the extinguisher off the wall, and ran back, holding it aloft, as if to strike. It could certainly pack a punch if she smacked it from this height. But Steve pulled it out of her hands, and instead pointed the nozzle forward.

"I was thinking more we use it this way."

Before Hannah could question his judgement, he moved to the doorway and began to fire the water at high pressure towards the creatures. The sudden burst seemed to frighten them, and they scuttled away into the joining room on the left. Hannah ran in past Steve and grabbed Mr Smith's hand as he jumped down from the table. The unlikely rescue team then pulled him outside, closed the apartment door and ran off down the corridor at high speed, Steve still clutching the fire extinguisher.

Once they were a suitable distance away from the group of creatures, they slowed down, but it took a while before they got their breath back. Mr Smith was still holding his little device, but he hid it discreetly behind his back. After the other two stopped breathing heavily, he braced himself for the barrage of questions that was bound to come his way.

"Hannah and….Steve, wasn't it? Thank you. Thank you very much. Without your help I'd probably be dead by now."

Hannah snickered at that.

"Thanks are all well and good, but I think we have some questions we'd like you to answer first."

"Yeah, and first of all, what's that little machine you're trying to hide behind your back, hmm?"

Mr Smith looked crestfallen at Steve's level of observation, but he revealed the device regardless. It looked sort-of like a torch, but one end was blue and it was making a little droning noise.

"It's...just a thing."

"That does what? My guess is it attracts those creatures, seeing as you had four of them after you at once."

"How'd you know that?" both Mr Smith and Hannah asked in unison.

"Just a guess. But thanks for proving me right."

Mr Smith sighed. These two were cleverer than he had thought.

"Alright, yes, it's not just a thing. I was using it to track the command signal of those things. They may look like it, but they're not wholly organic, and the mechanical part is being controlled. I was following the signal, but unfortunately it also began to attract them."

"I knew it." Hannah had now become deadly serious, and marched right up to Mr Smith, looking him in the eye.

"I knew it! You know what's going on here, don't you?"

"Well, no, not really, I don't –"

"But when you were talking to us in the apartment, you knew something bad was going to happen, didn't you? You knew that we were in danger."

"…Yes, I did have some inkling that something was going to happen."

Hannah became furious. She grabbed Mr Smith and slammed him into a wall.

"You knew that everyone here was in danger, but you didn't evacuate, you didn't tell anyone to leave, to go elsewhere, to go on holiday for a bit?! You talked to us, you could have told us to leave! You could have saved us! You could have saved anyone!!"

Steve stepped in now, pulling Hannah away from her target. Mr Smith stepped away from the wall, and sighed loudly.

"I can see I've got a lot of explaining to do."

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**Time for the adventuring to really begin! Will Hannah and Steve survive? Or will they, has someone has suggested, get run over by a bus? Coming up: a most annoying door, a lot more danger, and a shocking experience.**

**Please review if you are enjoying the story, or if you haven't and want to give criticism!**


	7. Pause for Breath

**Hello! It's been so long since my last update, you probably thought this was dead. Which, to be honest, it was. But I like to finish what I start, so Upstairs Downstairs is making a comeback.**

Pause for Breath

"Well? I'm waiting for your explanation."

"….Can we do this on the move, maybe? I told you, this thing attracts those creatures and if we stand still too long, it won't be pretty."

"He's got a point, Hannah."

"…Fine."

Mr Smith led the way back down the corridor, holding his thingamajig directly in front of him like a compass. Indeed, he wasn't wandering aimlessly; he seemed o know where he was taking them.

"Where are we going?" Steve asked. He was very curious about this Mr Smith, but not nearly as suspicious of him as Hannah was. Steve had always thought he'd been a good judge of character, and while this Mr Smith seemed odd, he certainly didn't seem malicious or dangerous.

"I'm trying to find the source of the signal…it seems to be coming from the top floor…Anyone up for eleven flights of stairs?"

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"Right. It's time for you to tell us what's going on, Mr Smith. God knows it'll take us long enough to get up all these stairs.

"Well, to start with, my name isn't John Smith. You can call me The Doctor."

"Are you supposed to be a spy or something?"

"….Why'd you say that?"

"For a start, you won't tell me your name. Is "Doctor" some sort of codename?"

"C'mon love, get to the point!" Steve interrupted. "What are you doing here, Doctor? Tell us that."

"Well, it started a couple of days ago. I was….travelling….when my ship picked up a strange signal, never seen anything like it before. It only lasted a second but it was off the charts. Just imagine, there I am sipping a banana daiquiri and suddenly- whooosh! I nearly fell out of my seat! But I'm curious, me, have to know what's going on. A bit like you in that respect. I was trying to decipher the signal, make some sense of it, when –BANG! The whole receiver blew up."

"Did you find out what it was?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I was quite impressed with myself. It was a compressed date file, a message. I managed to store a few words and phrases on the hard drive before the system went kaput. Translation was the tricky bit. I had to assign each number an alphabetical symbol. Sounds easy enough, but first I had to decide which alphabet to use. Took me weeks."

"But…you just said all this happened a couple of days ago?"

"….Relatively speaking, yes."

Steve was completely flummoxed by that, and his pause gave Hannah a chance to jump back into the conversation.

"So how did you know about those strange creatures?"

"I've seen them before. Well, something similar. They're called Cybermats, nasty little things, but these seem to be a different model. The poison's too effective…"

"But, how can you have seen them before? I've never seen anything like it!"

The Doctor paused for a moment. He didn't really want to lie to these people, but he didn't want to waste time with pointless explanations either. And he needed them to trust him; telling them he was an alien would probably blow that out of the water. So he went for a sort of half-truth; he wasn't exactly lying, but he wasn't disclosing the full truth either.

"I'm a scientific advisor for the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, or as you probably know it, UNIT."

"You work for UNIT?! Where's your back-up? Where's your gun?"

"..I left it at the office! Look - you can trust me, or you can choose not to. That's your choice. But frankly, your chances of survival will probably increase by quite a lot if you do."

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_Ten floors later_

"I don't know why I'm still here, honestly."

"Oh Hannah, just shut up and stop moaning. We're stuck with him now; you know it and I know it. We're almost at the top, anyway."

"That's what worries me."

The Doctor was far in front of the couple, and reached the top of the staircase. He looked confused, and pointed his thingy towards the ceiling. He turned around to face the couple.

"The signal's still coming from above us; there must be another floor above this one," he called down to the couple.

At that moment, the intercom crackled with a sound like static. Another message was incoming from whoever it was who was running the operation.

"AHEM. HELLO AGAIN, HUMANS. I MUST SAY, YOU HAVE BEEN SURPRISINGLY RESILIANT. ABOUT 50% OF YOU ARE STILL ALIVE, MORE THAN I EXPECTED. SO I'LL HAVE TO MOVE TO STAGE TWO. I MUST SAY, WELL DONE. FOR A LEVEL FIVE SPECIES YOU'RE DOING VERY WELL.

UNFORTUNATELY YOU STAND LITTLE CHANCE AGAINST THE NEXT OF MY FRIENDS. STILL, GOOD LUCK TO ALL!"


	8. The Second Wave

**Hello! Here is the next chapter of this story…which I abandoned for quite some time. But I am determined, it will eventually be finished. Eventually. Honest.**

The Second Wave

Hannah, Steve and The Doctor all stood completely still, scanning everything around them for potential threat: the next attack could come from any direction. A sudden burst of static from the intercom made Steve jump, as he was standing right in front of it. After a short pause, the voice began to speak again. He had caught everyone's attention.

"AHEM. FOR YOUR INFORMATION, ALL FIRST WAVE CREATURES HAVE BEEN DESTROYED TO ENSURE THE TEST REMAINS CONTROLLED AND FAIR…"

"Fair?! FAIR?!" Hannah shouted. "Fair on whom? How is any of this fair?"

"….ERMINATION SIGNAL HAS BEEN RECEIVED BY ALL UNITS, SO I CAN GURANTEE FIRST WAVE UNITS PRESENT NO THREAT. AND…OH GOOD. THE SECOND WAVE SHALL COMMENCE IN THIRTY SECONDS…. TWENTY-NINE …. TWENTY-EIGHT…"

Steve grabbed The Doctor and Hannah and pulled them into a nearby apartment. The room was remarkably pristine and clean; apart from a woman's dead body in the centre of the floor. Steve shut the door, and then began to frantically shunt pieces of furniture in front of it. As it opened inward, there was now no way for anything to get in. Hannah touched him on the back; he turned round.

"What are you doing?"

"You heard the speaker; we've got thirty seconds to get ready for…whatever it is that's coming next. Let's build a barricade."

"…Good thinking, yeah."

"No, it's not," The Doctor interrupted, a touch of annoyance in his voice. "We don't know what's coming or where it's coming from. What happens if it comes in here, hmm? We're trapped. We're safest in the open. Then we have a place to run."

Hannah and Steve stopped for a moment, considering the two possibilities. In the silence, the intercom from the hallway could be heard clearly: "FITEEN…. FOURTEEN….. THIRTEEN…."

The pair exchanged silent looks, and almost immediately began dismantling the barricade, as the intercom continued to count down. The Doctor moved forward and pressed his strange device up to the hinges of the door; it soon fell outwards. There was still a sofa in the way, but the trio just climbed over it as they ran back into the hallway.

"Wait by the stairs!!" shouted The Doctor. "We may have to leave in a hurry!"

"FOUR…THREE…..TWO…..ONE…..NOW!!"

The group all skidded to a halt by the staircase as the countdown finally reached its end. They stood, peering down the corridor. Steve and Hannah began to hold each other as they waited to see what would happen. A strange electrical noise could be heard; then, suddenly, various sections of wall suddenly slid away; hidden doors. There were three hidden doors down this specific corridor….and slowly something began to move out of each of them.

The Doctor, Hannah and Steve all immediately realised the immense danger they were in and watched amazed; first, the plunger shape could be seen as the creatures slid out; then the distinctive base, embedded with golden spheres. Next, the eyestalk, blue light reflecting off the white wall, getting stronger as they emerged….and finally the whole ghastly casing was visible. They were Daleks. The second wave comprised of Daleks.

The team all instinctively stepped down a couple of steps, and crouched so they were out of sight. The Doctor looked at his unconventional companions; their faces were both frozen in fright. It was clear they both understood the deadly power of the Daleks.... One of the monsters slid down the corridor, past the staircase. The two humans tensed, grabbing each other for comfort, but the Dalek appeared not to have noticed them.

Hannah and Steve had been blinded by fear (naturally enough, as footage of the Canary Wharf incident had been shown all over the world), but The Doctor had realised there was something _very_ odd about these Daleks. For a start, each of them had one sphere a different colour to the rest: why? And there was something different about their domes as well; each Dalek had a small aerial poking up behind their eyestalk. It reminded The Doctor of bumper cars, but he suspected the antenna wasn't for energy purposed. The Daleks had long since abandoned electrical energy as a source of power. So what was it? Communications?

But there was something else he had noticed; he, Hannah and Steve should have been found already. The Daleks had incredibly sophisticated sensors, audio and biological scans should have found them in a few seconds. Why hadn't they? He thought back to the Cybermats….Steve had been able to short-circuit them with a fire extinguisher. He hadn't questioned it at the time, but even that was unusual…the Cybermats casing was supposed to be incredibly resistant. Something was very odd here. And he was certain the answers were above their very heads….the top floor. He moved over to Hannah and Steve and began to whisper.

"We need to find a way to get to the top floor; we need to find out what's going on."

Hannah responded, but she was sobbing. "How CAN we? Those are DALEKS! We don't stand a chance. Oh God, we're gonna die…."

The Doctor thought for a moment, and then stood up, leaving Hannah and Steve alone, huddled up on the stairs. The Daleks appeared to be gathering further ahead, and began to file past the staircase. He waited for the final Dalek to pass, and then walked, calmly, right behind it. Hannah and Steve looked up, but they didn't understand what The Doctor was trying to do. The Doctor continued to walk behind the Dalek, unnoticed, until he dashed into a nearby apartment.

Hannah and Steve crept slowly up the stairs so they could get a better view of whatever The Doctor was doing. He came out of the apartment, brandishing a frying pan. Hannah's eyebrows rose. He stepped behind the last Dalek in the line, and threw the frying pan at it, before dashing back inside. The frying pan made a tremendous clunk as it hit the Dalek, but Hannah was confused. What was he trying to achieve? The Dalek didn't even seem to have noticed.

But Steve had worked it out; the frying pan had left an indentation in the Dalek case; it wasn't a proper Dalek after all. He explained to Hannah, and her eyes widened. The Doctor made his way back to the pair, and smiled warmly at them.

"As I was saying, we need to find some way upstairs. And I've got an idea."


End file.
